In the book, which will hit shelves April 11 via Lesser Gods, Eglinton uses exclusive, firsthand interviews with artists and celebrities who have crossed paths with the guitarist, including other members of Metallica, Testament’s Chuck Billy (who wrote the book’s foreword), Charlie Benante (Anthrax), Jerry Cantrell (Alice In Chains) and Rex Brown (Pantera), to construct the definitive account of Hetfield—at least up to this point.

Before becoming one of metal’s biggest personalities, Hetfield overcame several barriers throughout his adolescence, including his parents’ divorce, his mother’s death and severe alcoholism. Eglinton’s book provides the ultimate insider’s look at the man who turned it all around and became a metal god.

I recently spoke to Eglinton about So Let It Be Written, and you can check out our interview below. For more about Eglinton, visit mark-eglinton.com.

What made you decide to write a biography about Hetfield?

I’ve been a fan of the band my whole life, and this idea probably goes back to when I met James for the first time in 1986. I met James and Cliff Burton when Metallica played in my hometown, Edinburgh, Scotland. This was the week before Cliff died, so in retrospect, it was a pretty significant meeting.

James struck me as someone who had a lot of thinking going on but maybe didn’t know how to express it. As time went on, it became an interesting idea to see how he had evolved. On a basic level, it also surprised me that no biography had ever been written about him. Those two things in combination made it a pretty easy decision.

What made the music of Metallica so special for you back then?

I was into a lot of the bands that were around at that time—1984 to ’86—but was looking for something a bit heavier. When I heard Metallica for the first time, it was like inventing the wheel. It was a sound that was so different, so new and so aggressive. It wasn’t radically different from heavy metal but it was being done in a way that no one had ever done before. They’ve always maintained that interest for me.